Memories of Great Junction Street

257 Great Junction Street - that sombre Victorian building and identical to so many other tenements now long gone – opposite the State cinema was the family home.

Unfading memories include the big wooden front door and two rows of brass pull bells – Brassoed each week.

And we were there on that Sunday night at the end of WWII. Suddenly the street lights were switched on – what excitement. And then bananas and sweets began to appear in the shops – our euphoria knew no bounds!

Just occasionally would ‘Mr Nobody’ pull one of the bells – usually ours, being the bottom of the row – and usually just after 9.00pm when the pictures got out.

On each of the three landings was a large brass lever which when pulled upward would release the big front door and allow the visitor free entry. To a young pupil of Couper Street School such engineering was mind blowing and the system never seemed to fail.

On the large semi-dark, somewhat creepy ground floor there were three or four cellars – ideal for bits of carpet or an empty budgie cage (the bird had escaped out of a bedroom window and had never returned). Then the usual clutter of pots and pans and household flotsam gathered over the years and never thrown out. These were the days before the welcome charity shop.

Our home was ideal for a family of 5 and Lizzie the cat. The front bedroom windows overlooked the State cinema and kept us informed of the Saturday Night queues. Here was a grandstand view of an occasional fight outside the billiards room or the crowds spilling out of the Eldorada wrestling or the occasional ambulance racing down Mill Lane to Leith Hospital.

And what a magnificent unrestricted view of Great Junction Street with the towering Co-op clock keeping good time and the number 2, 7 and 16 trams rattling along the tracks or the LMS horse and cart clattering along the cobbled street.

And we were there on that Sunday night at the end of WWII. Suddenly the street lights were switched on – what excitement. And then bananas and sweets began to appear in the shops – our euphoria knew no bounds!